Re: Sadd: some responses to Jim's comments

Dear Lance,

Thank-you for your interesting response which prompted me to give the
matter more thought. Most of what you wrote sounds plausible to me,
but sfter a bit of reading up on some of the various suggested origins
of the Pali language by others, I find the one relating to Ujjenii of
particular interest. This is the one proposed by Westergaard, Kuhn,
Franke, and Konow according to Geiger, pp. 3-4 in his Pali Literature
and Language. Some of the arguments given is that the Asokan Girnar
inscriptions (presumably in the same area) come closest to the Pali
and Mahinda and his sister were both born in Ujjenii. I discovered
that Ujjenii is also the birthplace of Maha Kaccaayana who is ascribed
by tradition to be the author of the grammar and other works. As I was
doing a random search on the web for Ujjain + Pali, I came upon an
article recently submitted to indology.net entitled: _On the Origin of
the Pali Language_ by Eisel Mazard.  It just so happens that he is
working on a new edition of Kaccayana-vyakarana. He suggests the
influence of Kaccayana on Pali...

My thinking is that if Kaccayana had codified the grammar of Pali for
the purpose of preserving and keeping pure the language at such an
early stage then that is something to consider in how close Pali might
actually be to the language spoken by the Buddha and his followers in
Magadha. It may be a lot closer than many would have us believe. It's
not unreasonable to imagine that far-seeing arahants would be aware of
the need for preserving the purity of the language in a grammar
written by one of their own for the long duration of the saasana. I'm
not suggesting that the dialect of Ujjenii is what comes close to
Pali, but rather that Ujjenii or its surrounding area might have been
important for the preservation of the Maagadhabhaasaa. There
also seems to be a place called Pali in the same region. Anyway,
that's my two cents worth of speculation.

> Perhaps we should call it Magadhika to remind ourselves that it is
> based on a dialect used in the larger kingdom of Magadha.

Good idea! I found a list of various names for the language in Ledi
Sayadaw's Anudiipanii as follows:

Maagadhabhaasaa hi muulabhaasaati ca ariyabhaasaati ca
maagadhabhaasaati ca paa.libhaasaati ca dhammaniruttiiti ca
sabhaavaniruttiiti ca vuccati. -- p. 13

Apparently, Maagadhii is still being spoken in India under the name of
Magahii -- a Bihari dialect.

Best wishes,
Jim